


Soulmates

by eleutheromonia



Series: Bounded For Life [1]
Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: Angst, Bit of Fluff, Bloodlust, Drug Use, Eventual Smut, F/M, Family Drama, Medicinal Drug Use, Nen (Hunter X Hunter), Possibly Unrequited Love, Romantic Soulmates, Sexual Tension, Slow Burn, Smut, Soulmates, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-16 16:33:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29456784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eleutheromonia/pseuds/eleutheromonia
Summary: “Love isn’t an emotion or feeling, it’s barely even a choice so why is it that you still let your mother meddle with your love life? I mean, yeah, love does certainly feel like an emotion; an incredibly strong one in fact, but emotion is just a facial expression whereas love is something much stronger than that,” I told Illumi.The pale man glanced at the glass of champagne in his hands and then at the angry woman beside him before pondering off to the side to fill up two glasses. He walked back to me and handed me the glass without a second glance and begin taking small sips. I muttered a small thanks to him before I started drinking as well.A few minutes have passed and the dark-haired man still hasn’t my question. I was just about to turn around and leave when he finally decided to talk.“You seem an awful lot touchy about the topic of soulmates for someone who hasn’t found their's yet,” he finally said. “Or have you already found them, but they’re already in love with someone else?”
Relationships: Hisoka (Hunter X Hunter)/Original Character(s), Hisoka (Hunter X Hunter)/Original Female Character(s), Illumi Zoldyck/Original Character(s), Illumi Zoldyck/Original Female Character(s), Illumi Zoldyck/Reader
Series: Bounded For Life [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2212851
Comments: 10
Kudos: 27





	1. uninvited pest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Love isn’t an emotion or feeling; it’s barely even a choice, so why is it that you still let your mother meddle with your love life? I mean, yeah, love does certainly feel like an emotion, an incredibly strong one, in fact. But emotion is just a facial expression, whereas love is something much stronger than that,” I told Illumi.
> 
> The pale men glanced at the glass of champagne in his hands and then at the angry women beside him before pondering off to the side for a refill and brought and brought back an extra for me. He handed me the glass without a second glance and began taking small sips. I muttered a short thanks to him before I started drinking as well.
> 
> A few minutes have passed, and the dark-haired man still hasn’t my question. I was just about to turn around and leave when he finally decided to talk.
> 
> “You seem an awful lot touchy about the topic of soulmates for someone who hasn’t found their significant other yet,” he finally said. “Or have you already found them, but they’re already in love with someone else?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> in which there is an unwanted pest in aina's home.

Rikiya Aina lives in a world where the first thing nurses do once you evacuate the womb is check for a soulmate mark. A soulmate mark is essentially the same as a birthmark, except it’s prettier and holds a deeper meaning. The symbol indicates where you have a destined someone waiting to spend the rest of your life with you or not, and the temperature around it heightens when near your soulmate.

Aina’s mark is a simple infinity symbol that is easily located on the bottom of her pointer finger. Every night, the girl would smile at the spot on her finger before going to sleep. Cheesy, she knows, but some people like the nineteen-year-old can’t help feeling jittery at the thought of meeting their fated half.

“Just when will I get to meet you?” the girl asked the soulmate mark. She ducked the lower half of her face under her covers and started thinking. Almost everyone she knows has already found theirs, and yet it almost feels like a joke that she hasn’t. “Maybe there’s a glitch in the universe. What do you think, Nyx?”

Nyx yawned in response and pawed at her owner’s black hair as if to say ‘go to sleep,’ but that didn’t stop her human from rambling. 

“Wait, what if my soulmate is dead.”

Nyx face-planted onto the pillow.

“Oh my God! That has to be it.”

Aina sat straight up, startling the poor gray cat, and started pacing back and forth in her room. She went on and on with her theories and hypothetical questions for a few minutes to no one really but herself since she didn’t have the power to communicate with her cat. At one point, Nyx left the room out of annoyance. 

‘Can’t catch a fucking break here,’ the feline thought to herself as she tutted out of her human’s room.

The cat was long gone when Aina stopped her rambling

“I’m being irrational,” she said, finally coming to her senses. The ravenette dragged a hand across her face and let out a long sigh. “I should go to sleep before I can think of any more irrational thoughts. Yeah, I should do that.” She plopped back on her bed and reached an arm out for Nyx, only to realize the feline wasn’t there anymore. It took the girl a minute to realize that the cat wasn’t even in the room at all.

The girl went looking for the cat so they could cuddle to sleep together. The human ‘pssted’ and ‘jak jakked’ at her cat, but there was no response. She got on her knees and looked around under her furniture, and proceeded with her pssting. Every time she thought she had found the feline, she was ended up being met with dust and cat toys. The girl was just about to get up and away from the floor when she suddenly saw a large man sitting on one of her many couches with what seemed like her cat next to him because one of the intruder’s arms was moving slightly in what seemed like petting motions.

Aina panicked and took the mini swords out of her lobes before removing nen infused in the sharp objects so they could go back to their original size. Once nen was removed, and the swords were back to normal, the girl jumped quietly, approached the intruder from behind the couch they were sitting on, backflipped onto the intruder before positioning her swords so they would sandwich the intruder’s throat. She was just about to go in for the kill when the intruder said,” Done making weird noises already? Bummer, that was quite a show you put up. I was just about to make cat noises to see if I could fool the great Aina.”

Aina glared down hard at the man under her. The realization hit her when she realized who in her living room in the middle of the night and tracked the ‘intruder’ movements in the corners of her eyes as she watched him reached towards the table next to them to turn on the lamp.

“Clown,” she sneered once the lights were on.

The man frowned at the name.

“Correction, Magician.”

“Jester,” she hissed.

Hisoka scrunched up his nose up distastefully at the woman’s name-calling and pouted. He moved close to the woman and watched as she moved her swords away from him so he doesn’t get cut. 

“Such hostility,” he pouted, wrapping his arms around her. “Mm, I like this position.”

Aina looked away from Hisoka’s face and gave a disgusted look once she remembered she was straddling him. 

“Disgusting,” she scowled. 

She removed herself away from him and moved to the chair across from his. 

“Why are you here?” the now grumpy woman asked. She manipulated the atoms in her swords and shrank them so her sword could go back to the size suitable for earrings. Once finished, she stared up at the man across from her only to see him looking back at her in amusement as one would at a zoo.

“I’m here because I have a favor-”

Aina cut him off before the man could finish. “No. Whatever it is, I’m not doing it.”

“But-”

Aina interrupted him again. “I said no. Who the fuck turns up uninvited on a Thursday night at nine because-”

“Listen up, woman,” Hisoka scowled, gluing the woman’s mouth shut with bungee gum just as she was about to butt in again. She protested against it and tried to rip it off but only got her hands stuck to her bungee gummed mouth in the process. “Now, before you repeat no, which you can’t since your mouth is glued shut, I have a favor—a rather simple one. Go to the Hunter’s Exam with my friend and I. I was told that you had to collect some herbs where the exam is taken. Besides, you’d be killing two birds with one stone since you still haven’t taken the exam yet.”

He smiled at the woman across from him, waiting for her answer. 

“Oh, silly me. I forgot to remove the bungee gum. Did you know that bungee gum has the properties of both rubber and gum?”

Aina was now stomping both feet on the ground.

“Fine, fine. I’ll remove it,” Hisoka said, rolling his eyes. With a flick of his wrist, the bungee gum was removed, and a punch to the face was launched at Hisoka the moment the woman was freed. He rubbed at his jaw, not entirely out of anger, more so out of amusement.

“Use your monstrosity of a nen on me without permission one more time, and I swear on the love of God that I won’t hesitate to castrate you myself by hand.” 

Hisoka laughed. He actually laughed. The fucking masochist really had to audacity to-.

“That’s cute, but you will never come near my prized jewels. Also, you still haven’t answered my question yet. Are you in or not?”

Aina stared at him suspiciously.

“Seriously, that’s all you had to ask? Couldn’t you have just texted me like a normal person?”

The unwanted pest cocked a thin eyebrow up as if to say,’ now what fun would that be?’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is my first-time uploading work onto ao3!! lowkey kinda confusing but i have nothing better to do so i thought why not >:). make sure to leave comments and kudos <3
> 
> constructive criticism is always welcomed btw 👁👁🍵


	2. shrink, grow, and shrink!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Hisoka gets a little taste of what it's like being in Alice's shoes from Alice in Wonderland.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it says it all in the title.

“Use your monstrosity of a nen on me without permission one more time, and I swear on the love of God that I won’t hesitate to castrate you myself by hand.” 

Hisoka laughed. The psycho actually laughed. The fucking masochist really had the audacity to-.

“That’s cute, but you will never come near my prized jewels. Also, you still haven’t answered my question yet. Are you in or not?”

Aina stared at him suspiciously.

“Seriously, that’s all you had to ask? Couldn’t you have just texted me like a normal person?”

The unwanted pest cocked a thin eyebrow up as if to say,’ now what fun would that be?’ 

“Well, my dear Aina, are you in or not?”

Aina looked down at the floor and swung her feet childishly back and forth before muttering out a defeated ‘yeah,’ and Hisoka beamed at her reply. It was true that she had herbs to collect where the Hunter’s exam was taken. The girl was to collect medicinal herb that was to be used for anxiety and relaxation purposes.

“Although, I do have a question,” Aina said. “When is the exam, and who is this friend that will be joining us?”

“That’s two questions,” Hisoka said smartly,” But I’ll answer them since it’s you who asked. The exam is tomorrow, and my dear friend Gitarakuru will be joining us. I’m not sure if you have met him before, but he also goes by the name Illumi Zoldyck.”

Aina sat stunned and stared at Hisoka with wide eyes as he approached her. He lifted the girl from her seat by her armpits and proceeded to walk towards the bedroom with a frozen Aina in his hands as Nyx paddled behind them. The cat looked up at her owner in amusement as she watched the realization start to sink in.

“I’m sorry?” Aina laughed as she slowly turned her head around to face Hisoka with a maniacal look. “What did you just say?”

Nyx paused for a second and took in her owner’s facial expression and neck-creaking as the latter slowly turned their neck.

“Now, now before you lecture me, I’m well aware of the fact that I should’ve notified you way beforehand. I would apologize, but I’m quite tired and because Hisoka doesn’t apologize.”

Aina turned her head back around to face the front while Hisoka dropped her onto her bed. He laid down next to her and removed his shoes before plopping a hand up to his face to look up at his now angry friend.

“No, not that part,” she hissed. She yanked a pillow from underneath the jester’s head and started to hit him with it, along with every word she said. “I am indeed very annoyed by the fact that you didn’t notify me prior. However, I am more appalled by the fact that the person who’s joining is a Zoldyck. You know I don't have a good relationship with him yet you-”

Hisoka let the girl hit him with the pillow repeatedly because, honestly, it didn’t hurt at all. Instead of looking her in the eyes and apologizing when the girl was done hitting him, he instead picked up Nyx from the floor and turned his back to Aina as he held her cat to his chest.

“Yes, darling. My dear friend Illumi will be meeting us tomorrow at eight for the entrance exam, so unless you want to have enough time to grab breakfast, I suggest you go to sleep now.” He sighed and pulled the blankets over him with one hand while the other is hugging a now sleeping Nyx.

The woman gritted her teeth at this.

First, he comes uninvited, and now he dares to cuddle her cuddle buddy to sleep after telling the woman such shocking news? I think the fuck not, she thought.

She pulled the covers off Hisoka and folded her arms over her chest as she observed him as he turned onto his back to face her so he didn’t wake the sleeping cat and started dozing off.

“What?” he whispered shouted, eyes half-opened.

Aina pointed to the cat in Hisoka’s arms and opened her arms, ready to take her cuddle buddy back.

The man opened his eyes and pretended to be annoyed as he removed his left arm from Nyx and held it up so the woman could lay on the empty side of his chest. “You want cuddles too?” Hisoka yawned. “Hurry up and get in. I’m tired.”

He closed his eyes fully this time, and right as he was about to doze off again, Aina kicked his outstretched arm and pointed to Nyx, who was lying sound asleep on Hisoka’s chest, utterly oblivious to her human’s childish act.

“Cat, I want a cat.”

Hisoka frowned as Nyx started to shift on his chest.

“Aina, go to sleep.”

No, she was not going to go to sleep until she got her cat back. She was willing to do anything to get her back, and that includes expanding the size of her cat so much that Hisoka will suffocate and-

“Don’t even think about trying to crush me by changing the sizing of your cat. It will take forever for you to do so since I am a nen user, too, after all.”

The woman pouted and unactivated her nen. She hated how he was right about how it would take forever for her to make Nyx big enough so that she would be able to suffocate the man under her to death. This wasn’t because there was a flaw in her technique. Nen users are simply just built different from non-nen users. 

It would take her at least fifteen minutes at most to make her cat weigh the same as an airplane if she wanted to make Hisoka die of suffocation, but he wasn’t worth her time and effort, so she decided to just wake her cat up herself and take her back.

“You’re right,” Aina sighed. Instead of expanding her cat’s atoms to make her big enough to suffocate Hisoka, she started to shrink him instead.

“Of course I’m right,” the man said, full of pride. “I’m always- Hey! What are you-”

He looked at Nyx and then the woman next to him and said,” Love, we just went over this. It would take too long for you to do such a thing, so stop being stubborn and just go to sleep.”

Aina snorted.

“Check again.”

Except he didn’t need to. Panic starts to set in when everything around him starts to get bigger. He glanced down, or should I say, up at Nyx only to realize he was now half the size of her as he quickly got out from under the cat.

“Alright, alright,” Hisoka said hurriedly as he got out and under Nyx. “There, you have your cat back now, so change me back.”

Aina only smirked at this as she made him even smaller. The smaller Hisoka got, the higher his voice was. 

“I will buy you all the sweets from Belzium the next time I visit there,” he squeaked. 

He was now the size of an average person’s hand.

“I’m listening,” Aina said. “Start talking.”

She started to slowly turn him back to his original form as he began to bribing her.

“You can have anything you want starting from a condo in Ploridah, a-” 

The woman yawned. “Eh, sounds boring.”

This time, she shrank him smaller than the size of a hand, only stopped when he reached a pinky size.

“Nyx, take him away.” And with that, Nyx picked Hisoka up how a mother cat would her kitten and plopped him onto the nightstand next to her owner. “Good girl.”

Aina turned an empty water glass over Hisoka and placed a book on top of the glass for extra precautions. 

“Well then, nighty night, my loves!”

Hisoka shrieked in the glass he was in and started to bang at the glass loudly from inside. For a moment, Aina was worried about him getting out when the glass started moving only for it to stop when she added another book.

“Aina, let me out right this instance. This isn’t funny.”

“For you,” Aina snickered.

She reached towards her lamp and pulled on the string to turn the lights off. The woman sighed contently to herself as she hugged her cat to her chest.

“Aina,” Hisoka whined,” It’s cold.”

The man whimpered and placed his face against the glass, ready to guilt-trip his friend the moment she turns around and look at him.

“What now, you pest?”

Hisoka looked up at her with small pleading eyes. The moonlight emitting from outside Aina’s windows shined on Hisoka, giving him the perfect spotlight.

“Please let me out, and it’s cold in here. I promise to be a good boy if you do.”

The woman stared at the pinky-sized Hisoka for a moment before slowly lifting the books off the glass that was trapping the pest. She picked up something from beside the glass and tossed it in to join Hisoka before quickly placing the books back on top.

“There, you have a blanket. Now shut up and go to sleep before I toss you out the window.”

For a while, no one said anything, and no sounds were made so she assumed that Hisoka had fallen asleep, that is she heard him let out a scream so loud at such a high frequency that only dogs would be able to be heard. 

“IS THIS A USED FUCKING TISSUE THAT YOU JUST THREW IN HERE?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hisoka is a cat person. change my mind, i dare you 🔪


	3. gittarackur

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which most of the men in this chapter get their ass handed by aina

“Muffin?” Aina asked as she held a muffin up to Hisoka’s face, only for the man to turn away from her hand.

The man would usually happily accept the food without any obligations, but this time he ignored her and just continued walking forward as if Aina wasn’t there. This made the girl huffed. She knew Hisoka was annoyed, but what she didn’t know was how petty he was willing to be with the whole ‘I’m-going-to-pretend-like-you-don’t-exist-thing’ due to what happened earlier.

The girl thought back to this morning, and it was anything but pleasant. Mini Hisoka had woken up hours before Aina’s alarm, and the first thing he did once he was awake was cause ruckus which she was not happy about. He had tried to free himself on his own the night before, but it turned out to be of no use considering he was smaller than his pinky size.

The first time mini-Hisoka had woken Aina up, she pulled the covers over her head. His friend had only responded with ‘we’re saving water and helping the environment this way’ in an overly chirpy tone. But honest to God, the real reason why Aina still hadn’t returned him to normal was the overthinker was lowkey scared of him and because she didn’t want him to get cockroach juice all over the place.

“Kids these days,” Hisoka let out an exasperated sighed as he lathered his hair with hand soap.

“Nineteen, not a kid!” Aina responded as she brushed her teeth. The girl walked out of the bathroom and made sure to close the door before walking out, toothbrush still in hand and motion.

Nyx waved herself in between her owner’s legs as the human walked into a separate bathroom.

“Hey, love,” the girl cooed,” Do you want to be back to your regular form too?”

Nyx purred in response and rubbed herself against her human legs. Aina took this as a yes and petted the cat before motioning to give her a second. The feline meowed in response and jumped up to sit on the countertop elegantly and started doing her routine as well, starting by grooming her front paws.

Aina patted her face dry and starting applying all sorts of oils and moisturizers onto her face before finally turning to Nyx. She first started by placing the house cat-sized feline onto the floor before turning her back to her natural panther-sized form. Some might frown at this and call it demeaning to treat a panther-like a house cat, but Aina would say otherwise. The only time Nyx was a regular cat’s size was when she would sleep with her owner on the bed. Things were fine at first when Nyx was still a cub, but things slowly got more and more complicated as she grew. The older the cat got, the more space she took up on the bed, and Aina didn’t have the heart to tell the feline to get off the bed, so the human shrunk the panther to the size of a house cat. Nyx seemed not to mind having her physical appearance changed at night, so they both kept this routine they have been doing for two and a half years.

“Alrighty then, now off you go and make sure to not make a mess outside with the birds.”

The human girl opened a window and watched as the big cat hippity hopped outside to the rainforest to kill some birds. Once she made sure the cat had made it down safely from the second floor, she went back to her closet in the bedroom and picked out some clothes for her and Hisoka.

She threw on a pair of cargo pants, a white corset top, and some black boots before putting a brown fanny pack on that contained stuff ranging from mini first aid supplies to the most dangerous weapons known to humanity. Once she had all the things she needed, she put in brown contacts to cover her white eyes. As beautiful as they were, she disguised them so people don’t readily recognize her. The same goes for her hair. The strands on her head are unnaturally white, some might even say transparent, but she decided to disguise her hair with henna was the best option once she got more into the assassin business.

Aina didn’t want to be linked to her two most painstakingly loud features if a job went wrong, so she would dye her hair once every month, right when the color starts to fade and when her natural roots start showing. And finally, last but not least, she put on a brown leather jacket and matching gloves to hide her soulmate mark before bringing walking into the bathroom Hisoka was in when she had her contacts on.

“I’m coming in, so jump out of the sink so I can change you back. Oh, and I have placed your clothes on the floor, by the way, like padding, so you don’t go splat.”

“Can’t you just pick me up?” mini-Hisoka complained. “What if I accidentally miss the clothes and shatter all my bones?”

Aina scrunched her nose up in disgust and turned her back to him.

“No, thank you. I’d rather not accidentally touch something.”

The latter snorted at this as he climbed up the sink, completely butt naked, before swan diving to the fresh clothes waiting for him on the floor. There was a soft thud, so the girl assumed that Hisoka had landed, except that wasn’t the case at all. The jester had accidentally knocked a miniature hammer off the counter seconds before jumping, so when the bottle landed on the pile of clothes, Aina had assumed it was Hisoka.

“Wait,” Hisoka tried to say. “STOP, DON’T-”

But it was already too late. Hisoka was already the size of an average-sized toddler by then, and the poor jester’s junk was positioned right above the miniature hammer. The man hurriedly turned and tried to cover his dick with both hands, but the changing of atoms surrounding him made it hard to move in the air.

Aina had expected an exasperated sigh when Hisoka landed and the usual cocky smiley face the man usually had on when she turned around to check on him. Still, instead of any of those things, she was met with a regular-sized Hisoka laying on his front and clutching on his dick as he groaned.

“Son of a bitch,” he hissed.

The girl nudged one of Hisoka’s buttcheeks with her boot-clad foot and watched as it jiggled. She watched in amazement and nudged at it a few more times before Hisoka finally turned around with a pained expression. Aina hurriedly placed her foot back onto the ground and around the room. She coughed out of embarrassment before asking how the jester was, and he had only responded with incoherent screaming.

A mental image of Hisoka’s jiggly butt came to mind again, and Aina tried to silence her laugh with her hands but failed at trying to be discreet when she saw the man next to her glare daggers at her in her peripheral vision. This time, instead of trying to hide her laugh, she full-on cackled and pointed at Hisoka before stopping in the middle of the street to stomp on the ground like a mad-woman.

“Man,” she wheezed,” You should’ve seen your face.”

Hisoka only continued to glare daggers at her even after he continued to walk on ahead without her.

“Die,” he simply responded and released his aura.

The sudden change in the atmosphere made Aina choke on her laugh, and this made Hisoka smile a little after the humiliating morning, but as quick as the smile had appeared, it stopped and turned back into a glare when Aina regained back control and started laughing again.

“Remind me to cease contacts I have with you after this,” Hisoka sighed.

Aina quieted her snicker as she and Hisoka entered Zabin City. The girl doesn’t get to go out much, considering she lives in a rainforest, so she can’t drive out of town like regular people. She could and have the resources to do so, but she prefers going out only when necessary, and that means going out for food or when she’s needed for a job.

“Speaking of contacts and such, where is your friend Illumi?”

“He told us to not wait for him and that he would meet us there.”

Aina hummed to herself.

“You know, you would think you would have to be tested beforehand to see if you’re qualified enough to enter the exam site,” Aina said.

“Bold of you to assume that you don’t need to be tested beforehand,” Hisoka snorted. “Hunter applicants are tested on the way to the site by their tour guides and such, and it usually takes two to three days. Since I had already taken the exam last year, I already know how things roll, so I pulled some strings and got us a shortcut so we wouldn’t have to go through the unnecessary stuff and straight to the exam site.”

“Well, I guess I can safely assume that we don’t need to wait two or more days for the exam because I don’t think I can handle being around you for that long. Also, wouldn’t the destination be changed every year so old applicants can’t take shortcuts? If so, how in the fuckity fuck did you get the resources and stuff. ”

The jester made an offended noise at the first part before responding.

“One, rude. Two, a magician never reveals his secrets.”

“Secrets my ass,” Aina snorted,” Knowing you, you probably threatened someone.”

“As I said, magicians never reveal their secrets.”

The girl rolled her eyes and continued walking ahead. Knowing Hisoka, he definitely threatened someone from the Hunter committee to tell him where this year’s location will be located. There is no doubt about it.

“Where is the location anyways? I’m starting to get bored.”

Hisoka stopped, and Aina followed along with his movements.

“Right here,” Hisoka beamed and looked at the small restaurant ahead of them.

Aina looked in the same direction as Hisoka and dropped her jaw in awe. The building where the exam site’s location is located had to have at least sixties floors. She wondered if the inside interior would look as fancy and extravagant as the outside before mentally slapping herself at what the obvious answer was.

“It’s, wow,” Aina murmured.

“It sure is, isn’t it? You would think it would be the building-”

“There have to be at least sixty or more floors to this thing. Just look how high up it is!”

Hisoka stood still for a second and looked at the girl weirdly, figuring out what the girl was talking about. He looked at his friend and then at the direction she was looking at. The man snorted to himself before placing his hands on either side of the girl’s head and turning her to look at the restaurant he was looking at.

“The way to the exam is actually here.”

Aina looked at the restaurant and then at Hisoka.

“You’ve got to be messing with me. There is no way that Hunter applicants from all over the globe come to this small little restaurant to take the Exam?”

“Yup! The Hunter Exam attracts millions of applicants every year, and no one would expect the Exam to be held here, right?”

The girl hummed and agreed that was a good point. She followed suit in the restaurant and paused to let Hisoka open the door for her before walking in. She took a deep breath in and exhaled contently at the sweet aroma of grilled meat. Aina drooled at the smell and silently asked if she could order some food before

“Welcome! Take a seat anywhere,” the chef behind the open kitchen said.

“Is the backroom available?” Hisoka asked.

“Depends. What are you having?”

“The steak combo, please. The one that’ll make us see the light.”

Aina stopped her drooling and tugged at Hisoka’s shirt.

“Shouldn’t we wait for Illumi to get here first?” Aina asked. As hungry as the girl was, she didn’t want to order without the other person present and felt it was wrong if they did.

He shushed her and continue their order.

“Make it two,” he added.

“Combo for three, eh?” the chef said, raising his eyebrows. “How do you want ‘em cooked?”

“Grilled slowly over a low flame till done, please.”

“Got it, see yourselves to the backroom.”

Hisoka turned away from Aina and started heading towards the back with a confused Aina following behind.

“Was that the password to get us inside or something?” she asked.

“Yes, ma’am,” Hisoka responded.

They both stopped in front of a door, and Hisoka looked around before opening and entering it.

“So we won’t be getting food?”

“Maybe next time.”

Aina pouted at this and sat at the table. Damn it, she thought, should’ve swiped some food earlier if she knew that this was going to happen.

She crossed her arms and looked around the old semi-run-down room for the other applicants, only to be met back with empty space.

“Where is Illumi?” she asked.

The girl was to ask Hisoka about where the other applicants were, but the room’s shaking interrupted her. She held onto the wooden table next to her for stability and looked up in surprise. Up she was met with a large digital display screen, same as the ones you see in elevators. Puzzle pieces start forming together inside of the girl’s head, and she smirked.

“An elevator, how crafty,” she said, impressed with the design.

“Very much so,” Hisoka nodded in agreement,” And the other applicants are waiting for us downstairs along with Illumi presumably if he does end up showing up.”

Hisoka plopped down onto a chair across from Aina, and they both stared at the digital display screen in silence, and they watched the numbers moderately dropdown as they waited for the ‘ding’ to signal their arrival.

Once the numbers on the screen said ‘B100’, the pair knew they had arrived and waited for the soft hum of the elevator to stop as confirmation of their arrival before they both stood up in sync and walked towards the door and watched as it opened before stepping outside.

Out, Aina and Hisoka were met with a long tunnel filled with Hunter applicants from all over the world. Everyone stopped what they were doing and took in the two newcomers. The crowd stared at the pair, and both Hisoka and Aina stared back, but with ten times more intensity. The applicants shuddered at this and started whispering amongst one another, not expecting the two to stare back.

“Hello!” a small green little fellow greeted, approaching the both. He was small and resembled a bean.

Aina thought he was cute and smiled back while Hisoka’s face remained cold and unchanged as he continued staring-no, more like glaring, at the other applicants.

“Hello!” she greeted back.

The little green fellow held his hands out, each occupied with a white circular badge with a number printed on it.

“Please take your number badge. Thank you!”

The girl took a badge out of his left hand and clipped it onto her jacket before nudging at Hisoka to take the other. The jester looked down for a split second before taking a badge and clipping it onto his vest.

“Be sure to wear this on your chest at all times, please. And be careful not to lose it, okay?”

Once the bean-looking creature made sure both applicants were situated, he slipped into the crowd and wasn’t seen again. While Hisoka was busy trying to put the badge on without ruining his shirt’s material, Aina looked around underground at what seems to be a human-made tunnel. The place was grimy, and the tension in the abandoned tunnel was so thick that you could slice through it with a knife. There were also what seemed to be tubes alongside the walls, and the girl pointed that out to Hisoka.

“Let’s go sit down,” she said.

He nodded and trailed along behind Aina as he looked around for a particular person. It wasn’t that hard to find who he was looking for, considering that his friend’s get-up made him stand out like a sore thumb.

“You wait here,” Hisoka said to Aina,” I have some business to take care of first.”

Aina shrugged at this and blew away some dust from the giant tube attached to the wall before sitting down. She watched as Hisoka approached a man wearing green from head to toe with what seemed to be needles all over his face and body. The odd man twitches every now as if he had a screw loose. This made Aina cringe in discomfort, and she looked away. Not long after she had sat down, she was approached by a stumpy older man in his mid-thirties, most likely. He smiled at her, stuck his hand out, and started introducing himself.

The girl faked a smile at him and shook hands with the man as she listened to him talk about himself. She honestly didn’t want to talk to anyone at the moment, but she didn’t want to make any enemies right away, so she endured it and waited for the man to finish introducing himself before doing the same.

“Don’t think I’ve ever seen you around before, pretty lady. You must be new,” the stumpy man said and sat next to Aina,” Surely I would remember someone as beautiful as you. This is my thirty-fifth taking the Exam, so if you have any questions, you know who to turn to! The name is Tonpa, by the way. What’s yours?”

“I’m Aina, and you’re right! This is my first time taking the Exam,” the girl responded with a smile of her own.

“Well, why don’t we celebrate that with a toast?”

Tonpa took two cans of juice out of his satchel and handed one to Aina. This brightened the girl’s mood a bit as she accepted the canned drink.

“Sure, why not?” she said, this time with a more genuine smile.

She opened the drink and took discreetly took a whiff at it beforehand on instinct. It might’ve smelled like regular orange juice to the untrained nose, but to Aina, a trained herbalist, one sniff told her that the orange juice is laced with laxatives. Aina could tell Tonpa was up to no good as the stumpy man watched the girl take a sip from her can to confirm further what was explicitly in the drink.

Once he saw that the girl had taken her first sip, he gulped his can and smiled triumphantly. For someone that acted all nice and giddy, his aura was dripping with venom, and it left a sour taste in her mouth.

“Laxatives,” Aina snorted. “How original.”

This made Tonpa choke on his drink.

“L-Laxatives,” he stammered,” Whatever d-do you mean?”

“Don’t play dumb with me now, love.” The girl placed the can down next to her and dropped her smile. Dusting at her gloved hands as if to get rid of dust as she got up from her seat and bent down next to the nervous man’s ear. “I could smell the laxative from a mile away. You might be able to fool other newbies, but not me. Never me. Next time you try to pull something like this again, make sure you don’t cut the bottom part open like a dumbass and do a shitty job at gluing it back on. Five Minutes Crafts could do better than this.”

Aina leaned back up and headed towards Hisoka’s direction, leaving Tonpa fuming. On her way there, men cat-called her left and right and eyed at the exposed cleavage spilling out of her corset top while grown women stared at her jealously. The unwanted attention made her uncomfortable, so she hurried her steps.

The closer she got to Hisoka, the clammier her hands got. She thought this was since she had gloves on, but it slowly started to be proven wrong when her index finger’s soulmate mark started burning. It didn’t hurt per se, but it did take the girl by surprise. Her heart was accelerating rapidly, and she stopped to look around behind her to see if she could locate her soulmate anywhere.

It was almost like playing the ‘Hot, Warm, Cold’ game. The temperature around her mark would change along with her movements. With every step, turn, and twist, the temperature would either rise or drop as if trying to help her navigate to her soulmate. Once the mark was hot, she stared at it and then the direction ahead of her. Her finger with the mark on it pointed right in Hisoka’s direction. As she started to walk towards him, someone grabbed onto her wrist and latched themselves onto the girl’s back.

Aina turned around and wondered if it was her soulmate who pulled her back at first, but it turned out to not be the case when she faced the stranger. Her heart thumped with anticipation, but her instincts said otherwise.

“Hey there, pretty lady,” the applicant slurred,” How about me and you ditch this thing and head to a motel instead? There is always next year, but who knows if I will get to see you again after this.” The man wrapped his arms around Aina’s waist and nuzzled into her hair.

No, she thought. He isn’t my soulmate. She didn’t know how to explain it, but she just knew it isn’t him.

“No, thank you,” she politely said. Her words say polite, but her actions say otherwise. She contacted the man as she pushed him off her, which allowed her to work faster. The young girl shrunk the man’s blood vessels, causing the vessels to restrict the flow of blood; thus, retaining body heat and increasing vascular resistance at the same time. This causes the skin to turn pale because of the lack of blood reaching the surface. The girl just did right is called vasoconstriction, which is essentially the opposite of vasodilation which expands your blood vessels.

Aina stopped the vessels’ shrinking and walked away with a smirk, leaving the man partially unharmed. When she finally arrived behind Hisoka, something in her was screaming; HE’S HERE. The girl was about her friend about her new findings when the same man who bothered her seconds ago bumped into Hisoka.

“Watch where you’re going, you clown,” he hissed at Hisoka.

The said clown raised an eyebrow at this and said,” Correction, Magician.”

Within seconds, Hisoka sliced a card through the air in front of him, and the man who insulted him screamed, attracting attention from everyone. Both of his arms started disintegrating, and the man fell to his knees in horror.

“My, how unusual,” Hisoka chuckled menacingly,” Seems this poor man’s arms have turned into flower petals.”

Hisoka opened his arms and gestured to the crowd as if he was closing up an act at a show.

“Now you see them, and now you don’t. You should be more careful and do apologize if you bump into someone. Who knows which limb of yours will be severed the next time you don’t.”

While Hisoka was busy putting on a show for no one really but himself, Aina’s nerves were on edge. The girl was so nervous to the point that she didn’t notice her soulmate was standing right behind her until he spoke.

“Making a scene again, Hisoka?” Aina’s soulmate stated.

The girl flinched at the man’s voice but dared not to move an inch.

“Darling, have you met my friend Gittarackur over here yet?” Hisoka said, motioning behind the girl with his chin as his hands were intertwined in the back. “He also goes by the name Illumi Zoldyck, one that you’re much more familiar with.”

He had whispered that last part to her, but Illumi still heard it anyways with his super-assassin-hearing abilities.

“What’s the point of using an Alias if you’re going to tell strangers my real name,” Illumi sighed in annoyance. He wanted to drag a hand down his face, but the needles injected in him made it do so. “Also, we’re not friends. We’re strangers. Mere acquaintances at most, so please stop spreading false info.”

Hisoka pouted.

“But we’re not strangers, though, especially our little Aina here. You guys already know each other, don’t you?”

The girl finally turned around and looked at her soulmate. After years of dreaming of meeting her soulmate in all sorts of scenarios, this was most definitely not one of them. She eyed Illumi up and down and took his appearance in. His long lushes black locks have turned into a blue mohawk, his delicate doll-like features have turned rugged, and his big black cat-like eyes have turned red and sunken into his face.

“Damn, you glowed down a shit ton,” Aina said, eyes wide opened.

This made Hisoka double over in laughter while Illumi cocked his head to the side in confusion. He stared at Aina, confused, but curious and then looked over at Hisoka, who was laughing like a madman.

“Glowed down?” Illumi asked.

He cocked his head to the side and twitched uncontrollably, wondering what the young girl said that had the magician in tears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this bitch don't got a filter and it shows 🕴🏻


End file.
